“This project has been the brainchild of Tom and I since 2019, and it’s exciting to bring it to life on the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons,” said Van Lente. “It’s so cool to follow the story of an idea, from the invention of chess and the earliest war games, to the birth of TSR in the 1970s, to all the innovations gamers and designers have added to the RPG genre since then. Right, really, all the way to Baldur’s Gate 3.
“The board game industry is where I learned to be a professional artist,” Fowler said. “Years later, I’m honored to be able to re-immerse myself in the strange history of that world!”
Game Master: A Comic History of Role-Playing Games Follow Van Lente’s earlier New York Times bestselling non-fiction graphic novel comic book comics history, NPR said it was accomplished “with intelligence, energy, a healthy dose of arrogance and a commitment to getting things done.” The comic history of animationCalled “a must-read comic that entertains and educates” by ComicBook.com; and the American Library Association’s award-winning “Philosopher of Action,” which the New York Times called “extremely silly but thoughtfully rigorous.”
“Fred and Tom are both die-hard gamers, and it shows in this meticulously researched history of tabletop role-playing games,” said publisher Clover Press Hank Kanalz. “Their passion for games comes through in their dramatic and often humorous takes on how and why these games work and why we love them so much.”
